Ok, you don't play super fast, so how do you make up for it

[guitarjazz]

Originally Posted by Seraphine

As well.. Floyd's music was brilliant and practically tailor made for huge arenas and stadiums.

I thought it was tailor-made for staring at lava lamps,which is why I don't remember the bulk of Floyd I heard 35 years ago.

[Seraphine]

Originally Posted by guitarjazz

I thought it was tailor-made for staring at lava lamps,which is why I don't remember the bulk of Floyd I heard 35 years ago.

You forgot to mention the blacklights and posters, and strobe lights ( which make 'em move ) and the light boxes wired to the speakers, so the bass.. mids and treble light different colors....

All of which you wouldn't bring to a concert... but hey... Floyd provided adequate atmosphere eh!?

[GuitarArt1980]

Play good songs. Unless you're into speed metal, then I'd say change genres.

[Swirltop]

Originally Posted by guitarjazz

I thought it was tailor-made for staring at lava lamps,which is why I don't remember the bulk of Floyd I heard 35 years ago.

As a former car stereo basshead.... Floyd was tailor made for primo car stereos with tons of thump too That's how I first experienced Floyd

[GovernorSilver]

Originally Posted by Zero G

Well, I guess you should just have a little cry and give up, then. ��

My original answer to that question, especially in a backyard hang like that where a muso friend says "yo, let's jam on Just Friends", was to say "Sorry man, I don't know that tune. But I'd love to hear you play a solo version!".

In my case, I'm not lying - I really don't know that tune.

[JPF]

Originally Posted by JonR

Oh yeah, I love "big and pompous" too sometimes!
One of the best live shows I ever saw was when they performed Dark Side at Earls Court in 1974.

To be honest, it's not so much the music or the sound I dislike - it's the way it combines with Waters' lyrics, which always take themselves a little too seriously for my taste. They're made to sound portentous. IOW, the music gives them more weight than they can take. (He deals with subjects few other songwriters deal with, which is good, but he makes it sound as if no one else has felt those things as deeply as he has, or as if he has a unique or original insight, when a lot of it is truisms. There's something vaguely adolescent about it, like he's an overgrown morose teenager.)

I always preferred Syd Barrett's Floyd to Waters' Floyd! Barrett's songs could be embarrassingly childish, but had a winning innocence (and their music in the late 60s was ground-breaking, sparkling). Waters is like his humorless older brother.
They produced some great music post-Barrett, no doubt, but that glorious "bigness" often stretched out into ponderousness. Like those big inflatables they used for their stage shows: full of air (or helium), poorly supported, threatening to collapse under their own weight; never really looking as awesome as they were intended to be.

Just my $0.02...

Beautifully put.

I love both Syd Barrett and Gilmour-era Pink Floyd, for very different reasons, but Roger Waters does trip the light bombastic rather too frequently for my taste.

In a way, he helped me to better understand why the punk rock felt the need to drive a wooden spike into the heart of prog rock pomp and pretense.

The madcap laughs, and the spoilsport scowls, I suppose...

[apoyando]

While we are all listening to guitar players, others are listening to music.......
I try to make the path from intention to execution as direct as I can...while working on what stands in the way..
If the music you want to make requires super speed and you don't know how to do that try to find what's standing in your way.....or change the way you want to make music....
There is a lot of beautiful/meaningful music that does not require virtuosic speed...tone.touch, articulation are all part of it....

[Lucidology]

Damn it then man ... Practice why don't you ...!!
There's no way to make up for something you can't pull off ...


I would say that if the fact you can't play all that fast comes to mind ...
then you should take the time to learn how to do so.
If it doesn't come to mind and isn't all that necessary when it comes to the music you're making ...
Then it shouldn't be much of an issue ...

However with that being said,
Don't expect to be called upon to play certain kinds of gigs/music where 32 notes are part & parcel ...
A lot of those kinds of gigs often also call for some chart reading chops ...
For example ...
if you're going to be doubling sax lines don't expect to be able to pull it off without the ability to execute rapid passages ...

[justnick]

Hey, if you can generate a pocket (even as you might play in front or behind it) at 300bpm I'm cool with it. If you can't though...get the f**k off the stage!

Of course, that goes for 60 bpm too.

n

[GovernorSilver]

Originally Posted by Lucidology

I would say that if the fact you can't play all that fast comes to mind ...
then you should take the time to learn how to do so.

There is playing fast something you have been practicing over and over.

Then there is improvising a solo over a jazz tune at 230bpm.

The latter is what Clifford is talking about.

[KRosser]

Originally Posted by GovernorSilver

There is playing fast something you have been practicing over and over.

Then there is improvising a solo over a jazz tune at 230bpm.

The latter is what Clifford is talking about.

There's no law anywhere that says you have to play fast when the tempo's fast.

[Neer]

I just try to play musically all the time.

[GovernorSilver]

Originally Posted by KRosser

There's no law anywhere that says you have to play fast when the tempo's fast.

Hence my initial response, which was basically to say "Sorry bro, I don't know the tune Just Friends", then to half-time it or something if said bro were to put a gun to my head.

[russ6100]

Originally Posted by GovernorSilver

There is playing fast something you have been practicing over and over.

Then there is improvising a solo over a jazz tune at 230bpm.

The latter is what Clifford is talking about.

Right - most have misunderstood that.

Know the form - obviously this is most important but if that not possible, (I've had to play uptempo tunes loaded with changes *while* reading them down for the first time):

Reduce the number of chords you actually address - for ii7-V7s, go right for the V7, or just think ii7 - OR - go for a key center approach and play as horizontally as possible.

Breathe. You don't have to play streams of 1/8 notes.

If you are familiar with a tune that is usually called as a ballad but someone decides to do it uptempo, DON"T attempt to play the same kind of stuff you normally do, only faster - you may crash & burn and it will probably sound silly anyway - change your approach to the above.

[Clifford-D]

Originally Posted by KRosser

There's no law anywhere that says you have to play fast when the tempo's fast.

When I was in college back in the early 80s the professor taught a very vertical approach to playing.
I always got hung up in my head with this approach, most likely because I wasn't at ease with the understanding of the tune, Ill cop to that. Horizontal thinking always seemed more comfortable=
But not all tunes have this reductive ability and it doesn't need to be fast.
In Your Own Sweet Way is a tune that requires a more vertical approach and I can't RELAX. I get stuck in my head and melodic senses take a back seat.
I do believe my problem is me going into my head, relaxation is key.
Call it that creative quetude thing that someone made fun of
Now if the tune is horizontally layed out Im in melodyland